Tired of losing track of your plant carts? RACO GPS Cart Tracking uses RFID and GPS technology to identify where your carts are located (even while in-transit) and how long they have been there, allowing you to effortlessly view and manage your cart inventory, improve logistical efficiency, raise delivery accuracy, and ultimately save you money.

When Nonna makes her family’s traditional tomato sauce Dominick expects it to taste the same today as last Sunday — comforting and familiar. Why mess with the best? But, what if, just what if she simmers the sauce with roasted pork neck bones and sausage? Maybe she wants collagen from the bones to thicken the sauce and give it richer flavor. The tweak may go unnoticed, but the sauce may have better texture and flavor definition. Should she change the formula? Or should she cling to her past? She’s probably tweaked the recipe through the years as she’s learned ways to make it better. It’s just that no one knows. So, why not change now. Change may feel difficult at first, but it can improve the experience for everyone who touches the product. As a former president once said, “The price of doing the same old thing is far higher […]

A few key steps help protect your crops through the shipment process. In a recent survey of large growers conducted by Evonik, we asked the biggest challenges associated with getting healthy plants to market. Aside from concerns about weather conditions, the main problems were transportation issues and keeping plants hydrated in transit. There are a multitude of ways to ship plants, from carts to boxes or in sleeves, in pots or bare root and in all stages of growth, from young plants to finished, in your own trucks or in a contracted shipping company’s truck. Throughout all those scenarios, there are some key things growers should keep in mind to keep plants as healthy as possible from the time they leave the greenhouse to the time they get unloaded at their final destination. Planning Ahead There are a couple of actions growers can take before the plant gets loaded onto […]

Hanging baskets make up a good portion of the greenhouse business for peak spring, so it’s vital to have a strong growing program for these products. According to recent USDA statistics, sales of certain types of hanging baskets are up across the 15 states that produce the most floriculture product. The varieties that increased in sales in 2015 over 2014 include begonias, New Guinea impatiens and a category called “other flowering and foliar,” which is good news for including unique varieties rather than petunias and geraniums. Quality From the Beginning There are a couple of keys to a successful hanging basket program, and it all begins with a healthy start and the media mix. That means inspecting plugs and cuttings prior to planting up the mixes. Media can be pre-mixed or mixed onsite by the grower, but it’s important to have the right ingredients. Bobby Barnitz, vice president at Bob’s […]

As restrictions and water availability continue to be a concern, growers have to research other options for conserving their most precious resource. Water has always been a vital resource, considering much of life on Earth — humans, animals and plants — require it to exist. However, water has become an even larger topic of concern as areas in the U.S. begin to experience extreme drought conditions and parts of the world see water resources drying up. Examples in the U.S. include Southern California, where the U.S. Drought Monitor map shows extreme and exceptional drought situations. As summer wanes, we are beginning to see drought situations crop up in Georgia and Massachusetts, as well as abnormally dry weather in other regions of the U.S. Related to drought, a 2014 report from the American Meteorologist Society Journal of Climate projected the Southwest would have an 80% risk of a decade-scale mega-drought in […]

Grow what consumers want! Surveys show that blue is one of the top preferred colors of today’s consumers. Here are twelve top recommended blue flowering Proven Winners annuals and perennials to suit your spring production cycle.

The agreement allows Griffin to join Master Nursery’s network of more than 150 supplier partners, while giving Master Nursery access to new product and service options for member businesses in the Midwest, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Northwest regions.

Innovative marketing displays and retail concepts at California Spring Trials 2017, inspired by popular consumer trends and the need to encourage consumer success, overflowed with exciting new ways to promote plants.

This year’s Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) once again served as a great spot for the Cool Product Awards, an annual collaboration between TPIE, Florida Nursery Growers and Landscape Association, and The Garden Center Group.

Understanding the challenges of training new and seasonal staff at independent garden centers, Proven Winners says it is working to equip managers with tools to prepare their employees to better handle customers’ questions and boost their confidence in selling plants this season.

If you're a trend watcher, the 2017 Tropical Plant Exhibition, held in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, on January 18-20, was a can't-miss event. In case you missed it, here are a few highlights of the cool products, trends, and ideas seen at the show.